Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 vs Z Flip 4: Worth the upgrade?

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5

Our top choice

$800 $1000 Save $200

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 brings some great improvements over its predecessor, including no gap when folded and a larger and more useful exterior display. There are also performance upgrades.
Pros

More useful external display

Performance gains

No gap design
Cons

No camera changes

Battery remains same
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4

A great alternative

$725 $1000 Save $275

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 4 remains a solid clamshell choice. It has an adorable, space-saving design and delivers solid displays and cameras, a resilient hinge and various color options.
Pros

Premium design

Great display

IPX8 rated
Cons

No zoom camera

External display limited

Samsung announced the Galaxy Z Flip 5 during its Unpacked event on July 26, 2023. The cute, pocketable flip phone was revealed alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 5, Galaxy Watch 6 series, and the Galaxy Tab S9 series, but while those devices all offered minor updates to their predecessors, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 took it up a notch.

Some of the things we loved about the Galaxy Z Flip 4 stay the same for the Galaxy Z Flip 5, but there are a few differences that make this the best Galaxy Z Flip update so far. Here, we’ll explore how the Galaxy Z Flip 5 compares to the Galaxy Z Flip 4 to highlight the changes that have been introduced and help you decide if you should be upgrading.

The Flip 4 is getting harder to find new, although it’s still available on Amazon. The price has dropped tremendously since the introduction of the Flip 5, so the Flip 4 now makes for a great budget phone if you don’t already have one. Likewise, if your heart is set on the Flip 5, it will be less expensive when Samsung inevitably announces a new flip phone, so you could just wait for the cost to go down.

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Price, specs and availability

The Flip 5 is a premium device with a premium price tag

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 was officially revealed on July 26, 2023, with pre-orders starting immediately. It hit shelves on 11 August with an initial price of $999 in the US. It comes in Mint, Lavender, Graphite, and Cream color options, although there are also four colors exclusive to Samsung.com, which include Blue, Green, Gray, and Yellow.

The Galaxy Z Flip 4 started at $999 in the US when it launched. It is available globally, and you can get it from a number of different retailers, online and in stores, likely with some discount now that the Galaxy Z Flip 5 has been announced. There are also several color options available, with four standard options: Bora Purple, Graphite, Pink Gold, and Blue. The Galaxy Z Flip 4 also comes in a Bespoke Edition, allowing you to mix and match the front, back, and frame finishes to find a unique style.

We’ve run up a spec table below comparing the main differences between the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 and the Galaxy Z Flip 4, though if you want more detail on how these two flip devices compare, keep reading beyond those numbers.

	Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5	Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4
SoC	Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy	Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
Display	6.7-inch AMOLED, 2640 x 1080, 120Hz (inner); 3.4-inch AMOLED, 748 x 720 (outer)	6.7-inch AMOLED, 2640 x 1080, 120Hz (inner); 1.9-inch AMOLED, 260 x 512 (outer)
Battery	3700mAh / 25W wired charging, 15W wireless	3700mAh / 25W wired charging, 15W wireless
Camera (Rear, Front)	12MP f/1.8 main, 12MP ultra-wide rear, 10MP f/2.2 front	12MP f/1.8 main, 12MP ultra-wide rear, 10MP f/2.2 front
Dimensions	165.1 x 71.9 x 6.9mm (unfolded), 85.1 x 71.9 x 15.1mm (folded), 187g	165.2 x 71.9 x 6.9mm (unfolded), 84.9 x 71.9 x 15.9-17.1mm (folded), 187g
IP Rating	IPX8	IPX8
RAM and Storage	8GB RAM / 256GB, 512GB storage	8GB RAM / 128GB, 256GB, 512GB Storage

Design and build

The Flip 5 goes gapless

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 has a lovely design and, as we mentioned, it comes in a range of color options — 75 to be precise — all of which have a lovely matte finish. There’s a horizontal fold with flat stainless steel edges and a premium build quality. It doesn’t fold completely flat — so there is a gap next to the hinge — and the exterior display isn’t the largest of the flip folding phones out there, but overall, we love the Galaxy Z Flip 4.

At the rear alongside the external display are two camera lenses, while inside, you’ll find an inner display with a centralized punch-hole camera at the top. The water resistance is IPX8, so it’s not rated against dust, and there is a side-mounted fingerprint sensor rather than an under-display option like some other flagship non-folding phones offer.

The biggest change overall is the external display, which is quite a bit larger than the Z Flip 4 and far more useful.

The Galaxy Z Flip 5, meanwhile, offers a similar design to its predecessor, but there are a number of key improvements, including a claim of it being 25% stronger. Elsewhere, the hinge sees a redesign on the new model, which allows it to fold flat without the gap next to the hinge, and it’s lovely. The Oppo Find N2 Flip has no gaps, so it is great to see the Z Flip 5 follow this route too.

Despite the lack of gap, the IP rating remains at IPX8, so like the Galaxy Z Flip 4, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 is still not resistant to dust — something to keep in mind at the beach. The biggest change overall is the external display, which is quite a bit larger than the Z Flip 4 and far more useful — more on that in a minute. Inside, a centralized punch-hole camera sits at the top of the internal display like the Z Flip 4, a physical fingerprint sensor is also present again, and a dual camera on the rear also remains, so it’s familiar but quite different to its predecessor at the same time.

Displays, brightness, and response

The external display gets a huge upgrade

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 has a 6.7-inch AMOLED display when unfolded, and a centralized punch-hole camera at the top. It offers a 2640 x 1080 pixel resolution that offers a pixel density of 425ppi and the flexible plastic surface is covered with UTG — ultra-thin glass. There’s an adaptive refresh rate on board too, moving between 1Hz and 120Hz to keep your viewing experience smooth depending on what you are doing. It delivers ample brightness and a great experience overall, including a feature called Flex Mode that allows you to sit the phone down and use the camera, or any of the other optimized apps.

On the back, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 has a 1.9-inch AMOLED screen that offers a resolution of 512 x 260 pixels and a pixel density of 302ppi. It’s more of an information screen than a super useful screen, though it does offer a couple of features, including a camera viewfinder and a couple of widgets like weather and alarms.

As we mentioned, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 has a big focus on its new and larger external display. While the internal display mirrors that of the Galaxy Z Flip 4, with a 6.7-inch AMOLED panel with a 2640 x 1080 resolution and a 22:9 aspect ratio, the external display almost doubles in size. There’s now a 3.4-inch external display — larger than the Oppo Find N2’s 3.26-inch external screen – and it comes with a 748 x 720-pixel resolution, which delivers a pixel density of 305ppi.

This means it has around the same level of detail as the Galaxy Z Flip 4, but the larger size makes it significantly more useful overall, which we are very pleased to see. It’s also quite a departure from the original Galaxy Z Flip, which allowed you to do barely anything on the exterior display. For the Galaxy Z Flip 5, you can customize it with images, clocks, and frames, as well as swipe to see notifications and reply using the full keyboard. Core widgets are also supported, like SmartThings, Galaxy Buds Controller, and third-party ones, including Netflix.

Hardware

The Flip 5 adds a faster processor

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, delivering a super smooth and fast experience. It’s no longer the latest platform from Qualcomm after the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 was announced at the end of 2022, but it’s still more than capable. There’s 8GB of RAM support and storage options of 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB, none of which offer microSD support.

When it comes to battery, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 has a 3700mAh capacity under its hood, and it supports 25W charging, along with 15W wireless charging. The battery life is pretty good in use, and we got to the end of the day without a problem, though we’d always take more.

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 runs on the upgraded Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chip, like the Galaxy S23 series. There are only two variants this time around, both of which have 8GB of RAM. The 128GB storage option in the Galaxy Z Flip 4 has been dropped for the Galaxy Z Flip 5, though there is still no microSD storage option on board, so if you have a lot of photos, or you like to take a lot of photos, you’ll want to be making sure you get the larger storage variant.

When it comes to battery, as much as we would have loved to see an increase in the Galaxy Z Flip 4’s capacity and charging speeds, especially as there is now a larger external display to power, this was not to be. The same 3700mAh capacity and 25W fast charging are on board, though Samsung has said that the upgrade to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 platform will mean a longer battery life compared to the Galaxy Z Flip 4.

Alex Dobie / XDA

Cameras stay the same

No noticeable changes to the camera

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 has a dual rear camera system that features a 12-megapixel main camera with 1.8µm pixels and an aperture of f/1.8, alongside a 12-megapixel ultrawide sensor with 1.12µm pixels and an f/2.2 aperture. It has a 65% brighter main sensor than the Galaxy Z Flip 3, and the results it produces are lively, with plenty of pop. It doesn’t offer the best low-light performance out there, though it will lighten dark scenes to give you more detail.

On the front, there’s a 10-megapixel snapper with 1.22µm pixels and an aperture of f/2.4. Again, it’s not the best low-light performer, but you can use the exterior display as a viewfinder, which means you can take selfies using the rear camera instead.

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 follows in the footsteps of the Galaxy Z Flip 4, offering an identical composition on both the front and rear camera offerings. When it comes to taking pictures, you can expect the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 to produce similar results.

Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 5 with the Good Lock app widget for running apps on the Cover Screen.

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Case closed: the Flip 5 is a worthy upgrade

Then again, the Flip 4 is now a great bargain

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5

Our top pick

$800 $1000 Save $200

Overall, there are some great improvements to the design of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 in the Galaxy Flip 5, including the latest flip phone folding flat and offering a larger and significantly more useful external display, both of which are key. Some things haven’t changed — the cameras remain the same, as do the RAM and battery offerings — but there have been upgrades to the mobile platform running the show, which in turn should deliver performance upgrades. Overall, if you’re choosing between the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and the Galaxy Z Flip 4, the newer device is the clear winner.